Monthly Highlight : February 2020

February was also moving too fast. There is no day without rain. That’s why I was a bit sad that my laundry didn’t get much sunlight, but the cool weather allowed me to sleep more. When the weather gets hotter, I can’t sleep any longer. So rainy days are a blessing too. One thing that I felt during February was softness. February was softer than January. In February I did less things compared to January, but I decided to do some small things every single day starting February. I decided to do morning yoga, morning meditation and eat fruits and vegetables every single day no matter what happens. I used to only do yoga before bedtime, so starting February, I do yoga twice a day. Yay. I just felt that by doing these small things every single day, something in my life will be changed. 

Also, February was the month where we were blessed by some different kind of fruits and vegetables. When I wrote a post about food from forest, I planned to order some Salak fruits online, but then mom brought a big package of my favorite Salak fruit along with dragonfuit, apples, banana and oranges, said she just got a discount from her favorite fruit seller. Cool!

February also was a month of surprises. One of them was my blog views that increased when I didn’t post anything. So this month’s total views surpassed January by 2000+ views. I didn’t aim for surpassing January views since I felt some resistance during the first couple days of mercury retrograde. I wanted to sleep more, I didn’t want to write anything. But after that I gained back my fire, haha, that I recorded some audioblog episodes in a day. Oh, speaking of Mercury retrograde, my laptop keyboard and its wi-fi connection feature are unstable. It’s an old laptop anyway, I might need to buy a new one. Also, I received another new year card from my friend. All the new year cards I received this year were self-made. My friends made them by themselves that I can feel their love and creativity through their cards. I hope I can send more new year cards for 2021 too. Yay!

Destiny is my February monthly theme. I think everyone is responsible for their own destiny. What they believe as true and what they believe as false. Their beliefs determine their destiny, because I believe that God has created limitless realities for us to choose. All of those realities are possible for us to live in, and still remain as possibilities once we don’t do anything in our lives. It’s interesting, right? You have so many versions of your life to choose from. Once you choose it, it’s yours, it’s your destiny. Whether you believe it or not, your life still goes on based on your current beliefs. 

Another challenge or project I finished during February is #MyKindFebruary project. The blog post about it became one of the most popular posts during February, yay! Thank you! Congratulations to everyone who joined this project, you have made it till the end! I’m thankful and so proud of you that you chose to make small changes every single day during February. I joined my own project too, and I finished it! During the challenge, I was feeling that this challenge is something that is done between you and yourself. You don’t need to update it every single day. By only doing it from your heart, you will feel happiness. It’s the good energy that is spread through small things everyday, no matter what other people do or your circumstances look like. I hope I can make other projects to do small things everyday next time! I want you to spread good things to your surroundings, because energy whether it’s good or not, is contagious.

I emptied all my skincare during February. Haha. It’s part of my skincare commitment to empty all my purchased products before buying the new ones. During February I emptied 4 products which are Etude House Soon Jung 2x Barrier Cream, COSRX Ultimate Nourishing Rice Spa Overnight Mask, Laneige Cream Skin Refiner, and Hadalabo Gokujyun Ultimate Moisturizing Lotion.

You might be bored of me talking about this lotion from Hadalabo. Yes. I finished another bottle of Hada Labo Gokujyun Ultimate Moisturizing Lotion. Why I love this toner so much is because it’s simply hydrating my skin without any other promises. I only want to focus on hydrating my skin, so the toner that consists of Hyaluronic Acid and is targeted for only hydrating is the best choice I made. It’s a toner that I will come back to whenever I try any other toner. It’s affordable and you can find it almost everywhere.

Etude House Soon Jung 2x Barrier Intensive Cream is the first product from the mini trial kit that I emptied during February. I like this moisturizer since it’s calming without making my skin greasy. It doesn’t have any scent, only a subtle scent that smells like a new book which is my favorite. It has camellia sinensis extract, panthenol and madecassoside which are all my favorite ingredients.

Finally I emptied my Laneige Cream Skin Refiner. Even though it’s a travel size one, the hot weather during 2019 made me pausing this product usage until the end of the year where the weather went lower. It’s a cream in a toner bottle, which is so hydrating during dry and cold weather. It has meadowfoam seed oil which is the highly stable fatty acid that is one of the most resistant to oxidizing. Overall, it’s a super hydrating product that supports my minimalist skincare routine. When I use it, I only need this one and moisturizer to finish my routine at night.

COSRX Ultimate Nourishing Rice Spa Overnight Mask is one of my favorite moisturizer since it’s not only moisturizing but also calming. When I have small pimples come out, it works very well with my PURITO serum to calm my skin. Even though it’s an overnight mask, I use it under my sunscreen too during the day. It’s not greasy anymore. It has Rice Extract as its first ingredient that is claimed to tone and soften the skin. It also has my favorite ingredient, Niacinamide which is popular for skin brightening, but I love it for its calming function. 

Someone said that you can tap into someone’s energy by reading his book. Yes, it’s what I felt while reading The Science of Enlightenment by Shinzen Young. I feel calm even though my surroundings were noisy. Shinzen Young is a neuroscience research consultant and American mindfulness teacher, who makes his book uses scientific approach mostly mathematics and neuroscience to explain how meditation works in our life. One thing that I didn’t expect from him is that he mastered Asian languages and lived in Japan as Shingon in Mt. Koya for 3 years. He also taught English for young monks there. He then received Shinzen as his name too. That’s cool! When most people think that meditation is sitting down on a couch in silence for 30 minutes or later, that’s true, but meditation can be done anytime. As this book explains “Any situation wherein you’re consciously cultivating focus is, by definition, a meditation.”. So, you can enter a meditative state during any of your daily activities. 

Love Yourself is a new song from the new album Bright New World by Little Glee Monster. I also like its lead song SPIN which sounds cool. But, Love Yourself is instantly my favorite when I first listened to the song once it’s available for online streaming. This song inspired me to post Love Yourself post on February 14, that also fueled me to record the audioblog on the same day. My 2 favorite lines are (you might be bored seeing one of them, since I already posted it on my twitter and instagram) : “The future that you are stepping now is invisible to everyone else but you. The person that you can love more than anyone else is you.” The first line resonates with my old post about dreams. I ever posted something like, your dreams are only visible for you, because it’s only for you, not anyone else.

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It’s Okay is one of the songs by Ayla Nereo in her old album BeHeld. It’s a song that shows you that anything you do is okay. The song sounds fun and makes me chill in the afternoon. It’s okay to be private, it’s okay to cry, it's okay to hold back or hold things inside. It's okay to scream, to release them, to be seen, it's okay to be seen, it's okay to receive. Yeah, it’s okay, my loves.

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Joy To Life is one of my favorite songs from the album Holy Child by Alexa Sunshine Rose that I love to listen to during morning after my yoga routine. It’s calming my surroundings and sending the message of joy of peace to the world, to every living being and everything that exist in this universe. For me, morning time is an important time too, it’s a fresh start, so I want to plant seeds of positivity during the morning by listening to good music to raise my vibe. Since I currently live near a religious related place and a school that are rarely free of noises, I need to infuse my everyday with high vibe sounds. 

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Fields of Hope is an insert song of Gundam Seed series by Tanaka Rie, that suddenly being re-released on Spotify on my birthday (what a surprise). Another calming song that shows us that the world and the peace are possible to live with each other. It’s a promise song the Fields of Hope we are longing for exist. It’s a comforting song that is suitable to be listened at the end of the day, when you are tired of your daily job, you just lay down on your couch and listen to this song. It feels like being sent to the quiet green meadow.

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Okay, I hope you enjoy this monthly highlight which is longer than I expected. See you on the next monthly highlight!